Milestones

Held six regional land trust gatherings. Began building relationships outside the land trust community. Held half-day PA Land Trust Meeting with 65 attendees during the Mid-Atlantic Land Trust Conference that PALTA co-organized. Published 1st guidance—a Guide to the Conservation and Preservation Easements Act.

2002

Launched the Land Trust Service Center Technical Assistance Program: six guided organizational assessments supported and direct staff assistance by phone, email and in-person provided. Published the first installments of the Stories of Land and People series.

2002

Second staff position established.

2003

Held 1st Pennsylvania Land Conservation Conference – with 130 attendees and two days of programming. Launched ConserveLand.org.

2004

First grants made under the Conservation Easement Assistance Program. Critiqued proposed changes to and advocated for strengthening of Land Trust Standards & Practices. Established the Lifetime Leadership Award.

2005

Published 1st edition of the Model Grant of Conservation Easement and Declaration of Covenants. Completed the 18th and final installment of the Stories of Land and People series.

Published In Their Own Words and distributed 16,000 copies. Expanded the Pennsylvania Land Conservation Conference to three days with 315 attending. (Attendance going forward never drops below 300.) Established local government Conservation Leadership Awards. Published 1st edition of the Model Trail Easement Agreement.

2007

First broad solicitation of individuals for contributions.

2008

Held two-day Natural Gas & Land Conservation Conference in response to the Marcellus boom. Published Public Dedication of Land and Fees-in-Lieu for Parks and Recreation, PALTA’s first guidance regarding the Municipalities Planning Code.

2009

Published guides on Stewardship Fees, Pledges and Donation Agreements, Reversionary Interests and more as PALTA focused on developing robust guidance (going beyond model documents) for land trusts. Published the PA Land Choices land use curriculum for schools.

2010

Launched ConservationTools.org with guidance on dozens of conservation and planning tools and topics, expert listings and more.

2011

PALTA’s guidance mushrooms with four new model documents associated with easement transactions published and twenty guides featuring original content posted to ConservationTools.org. Published drilling violations report, which attracted media attention across the continent.

2012

Teamed up with DCNR, PRPS, et al. to promote outdoor recreation, expanding Get Outdoors PA to involve local government and land trusts.

2013

Published PALTA’s first models to go beyond easement transactions: a release of liability agreement and grant of purchase option. Initiated effort to improve the Land Trust Accreditation system. Took responsibility for facilitating the previously quiescent EAC Network for environmental advisory councils.

Facilitated the development of the Land Stewardship Network peer group. Published Nature Play to promote nature play by children and highlight its criticality to conservation.

2016

Added the sign gallery to ConservationTools.org. Published model documents for obtaining rights of first refusal and offer. Contributed substantially to the new edition of Land Trust Standards and Practices.

2017

Launched the mentorship program. Published the 100th original guide (and several more) at ConservationTools.org. Held first Western PA Land Conservation Summit, attracting 87 individuals, the majority land trust board members, over the two days.

2018

Launched comprehensive, interactive online maps of privately and publicly conserved PA lands and of the service areas of conservation organizations. Created Model Declaration of Public Trust to help permanently protect publicly-held parks and open spaces.

The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association envisions future generations enjoying—undiminished—Pennsylvania’s natural areas and open spaces. The Association envisions communities having deep connections with their urban, suburban and rural lands. The Association envisions people recognizing the health, safety, recreational, economic and other benefits delivered by land conservation.